"This sucks!"

Sakura Haruno, hero of the fourth ninja war, medical prodigy, maker of craters, destroyer of walls, and the only one that could make the strongest ninja in the world turn into a sobbing toddler, was drunk. No, drunk wasn't even the right word for it.

She was sloshed, destroyed, wrecked, with an impending hangover that would kill lesser Ninja.

For her part, Ino just smiled at her friend. This was nothing new to her. She had seen Sakura go through this at least six times now, although originally it was more crying and less trying to drown those tears in booze.

One of the many things that Ino was grateful she didn't pick up from Tsunade.

"You're a strong independent woman Sakura, you've been on your own before, you can do it again." Ino hummed into her own glass of sake. The slightly sweet flavor was just to her liking. It helped her own pain fade slightly. Though, she had a hard time calling it a pain at this point, more a dull ache that was filled with nostalgia and happy memories. Really, she should be the one downing the bottle and bawling her eyes out.

"I know, but it's just." Sakura pulled at her pink hair. She had let it grow again; it was barely to the middle of her shoulders but she was already talking about cutting it again. Sakura slammed her head down onto the table, her entire body letting out a groan. "It's just like, he was only here for two nights this time and he didn't even touch me."

Ahh, maybe Sakura needed another bottle.

"Even when we were saying goodbyes! He just shook Naruto's hand and did that arm clasp thing, but when I moved in front of him, he just stared. Then he nodded and said 'See ya later' before running off! Like what the fuck! I didn't even get a kiss! A hug! Anything!" Sakura shot up, cracked open another bottle, and chugged most of the thing before slamming it down onto the table. "Pswah! Last night I had a wet dream about him touching my forehead."

Sakura needed at least 20 more bottles.

"Well, I mean, what did you expect?" Ino offered with a soft shrug. She knew full well the downfalls of dating hot but emotionally distant men. Really, this shouldn't have been a problem for Sakura since she was usually so outspoken, but with Sasuke she was… well, somehow more timid than Hinata was.

"I know, I know," Sakura groaned, leaning back into her seat again, completely oblivious to the server that was giving her a curious look. She had broken a table before. "But, I just, like, expected him to at least want to stay. At this point I feel like he's looking forward to getting away from me."

Ino could only hum in agreement. There was a time when she would have loved to be in Sakura's shoes. Just the idea of being Sasuke's official girlfriend was enough to make her heart flutter. Now though? Things were different.

Sasuke was still a hottie, but he had lost a lot of his charm. At least looking was free.

She took another drink of her sake. That shot was surprisingly bitter.

Sakura took another drink from her bottle and leaned forward. Her eyes were misty, and a few tears were beginning to form in the corner. "I love them both, ya'know? Like, love love. I could have easily seen myself being happy with him. He's not a kid anymore. And all the studying is doing good work at making him a better him. But he's still him. It would be easy to picture it. We'd live in an apartment, it'd be small but we don't have a lot of stuff, so it'd work. He'd say stupid and annoying stuff and I'd yell at him. It would be great. He'd be him and I'd be me."

Sakura smiled at her bottle for a moment. "Our neighbors would have hated us."

Ino raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking about Sasuke?"

She heard the 'both' Sakura mentioned, but that could mean anything.

Well except for…

"Naruto," Sakura said softly. "Him and that big stupid mouth of his. At least he'd be here if I chose him."

"Why didn't you?" She had almost thought that Sakura thought of Naruto as something like a younger brother with no romantic interest in him. Like at all. Kind of like how she viewed Shikamaru and Choji.

Sakura shrugged. "I wanted to give Sasuke a reason to come home. I figured that if he had me here as his girlfriend, he'd stick around. He wants a family, ya'know? Not quite restoring the clan, but he said he wants one kid. Maybe two if things go well; I think he's a bit spooked about all the Uchiha baggage though."

That was a dumb fucking reason.

"There was also, well, ya'know." Sakura swirled her bottle "I just felt like Hinata was better for him. And she is. No baggage, just a sweet loving girl. Perfect for Naruto." She paused and stared downward at her chest, before she growled and rolled her eyes. "And he'd probably be happier with her anyways."

Ino just sighed. The revelations really weren't that surprising, all things considered, they were honestly just exhausting at this point. It felt like Sakura was just trying to brute force everyone into being happy, which given how she was, wasn't too much of a surprise; she always did charge into everything forehead-first.

Though it wasn't like she was any better; Shikamaru and Temari had just kind of happened, so she didn't really have to do anything, but she did set Choji up on like four dates before she just gave up. Choji was a master of knowing what made him happy, and none of the girls she tried to set up with could do that.

Ino tapped her fingers along the table and stared at her sake again. Her nose wrinkled as the thought of taking another sip made her stomach churn. She wasn't even that drunk. She was maybe tipsy at best. Especially after only two cups.

And a half.

"Alright, forehead, let's get you home before you start causing property damage." Ino slid out from her seat and dragged her completely sloshed friend to her feet. Sakura feebly reached for the last bottle of sake only to knock it over, spilling the last few drops onto the table.

Good thing they already paid.

The A-rank mission that was to escort a drunk Sakura home had some pretty terrible pay, but it was easy enough so long as one avoided letting Sakura actually punch things, or mention Naruto more than twice.

Or run into Naruto.

Though, this time Ino wasn't sure what exactly would happen if they had bumped into Naruto. It would probably depend on if he was with Hinata, which, this late on a Friday, he better be with his girlfriend. Shikamaru was not allowed to be the only one in a stable relationship.

Once Sakura was delivered, Ino made her own way home. Rather than running along the roofs or rushing home in some other Ninja fashion, she simply walked, enjoying the cool summer air and the sounds of Konoha at night.

She arrived home faster than she wanted to.

"I'm home," she said to no one. Her apartment looked like a dude's. Plain. Functional. Simple. She had a couch, she had a table, she had a bookshelf, she had her clothes, she had her bed. She had her photos. She had plans, ideas for painting the walls, furniture she was considering, plants she wanted, there was even the vague idea of getting a cat.

But all that stuff just kind of stayed as plans.

She didn't feel like decorating her home.

She flopped down onto the couch and pulled her knees to her chest, now envious of how fast her drunk friend had passed out upon touching her bed.

"This is fine," she said slowly. "This is fine, I need time to be alone. It'll be good for me."

And it was.

Just right now.

It felt like it wasn't.

Her break up with Sai was mutual.

But it felt like it wasn't.

It was probably the reveal that he had been faking it the whole time that hurt the most. He wanted to see if he could feel that way and was just using books to act like a decent boyfriend.

Part of her wondered how far he would have gone if she didn't realize that something felt off.

"No boyfriend is better than a fake boyfriend." She sighed and laid down on the couch, clawing at the simple blanket that she had placed on there as a rather bland decoration. It was thin, perfect for sleeping on a summer night. "I'm smoking hot, I can get a boyfriend whenever I want."

"Just need to find one I want."

AN: |ω ・ ´) Hi... I had an idea I wanted to write.